Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Governor Mark Dayton

I had the day off from work so I could meet my representatives at the Capitol in St. Paul. One was unavailable, plenty of meetings and committees booked. The other I saw at midday, and when we were finished I went to the Transportation Building and had lunch. I did take plenty of pictures inside and near the Capitol, as expected. This included numerous ones in a rathskeller, and I liked how there was a wall display about the history of the room. This included mention of the meaning of the term, basically 'Town hall basement' in German. I know my dad liked to say 'You can find me in the Rathskeller', and I like the sound of it. In many ways I like this place as it reminds me of visits to New Ulm for Oktoberfest, as I like having a drink at the Rathskeller at Turner Hall.
   But the highlight of the day was how I got a picture with Minnesota's governor, Mark Dayton. I went to the governor's Reception Room as I like seeing the paintings there. Many of them are of Civil War battles. At first I noticed the door was closed, then it opened. And I saw the governor was still inside! It looked like he had just been meeting with members of AFSCME, a government workers union. When one of them asked for a picture with the governor, I said I don't get opportunities like this too often so I asked for the same. Needed three tries before it took, as the assistant didn't know how to operate my digital camera. Then shortly after this he went through a private door and that was it. A tour group showed up shortly after this and when a private door opened again, albeit very
briefly, I noticed there were portraits inside of both presidents named Roosevelt. I was in the right place at the right time, in more ways than one.
   After the Capitol I was driving past on Snelling and decided to investigate why the Cheapo music shop appeared to be empty. A sign said 'We moved across the street'. Hadn't been there in a little while so I visited that location. I got two postcards, one was with a 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' theme. Also got two CDs, a Smashing Pumpkins single, 'Disarm' was one. The other was a self-titled Pearl Jam, from 2006. I did my best to guess on which ones I don't have yet. I'm fine with getting Pumpkin singles, even if I already had the song on the full album as sometimes the artwork can be different.
   I did get home in time to watch 'Millionaire' and 'Jeopardy'. The Final Jeopardy question was one I knew, a year when 3 men served as President, I knew this was in 1881 since James Garfield was assassinated. The other was 1841, when William Henry Harrison died in office after serving just a month. After doing dishes I fell asleep in my chair, but did check email before leaving for the comedy club. Upon arrival I did get comments about my patriotic shirt. I said it seemed appropriate for being at the Capitol. One friend did a joke about wearing 'Double Flannel', I was thinking more about calling him Paul Bunyan as he had a winter hat on as well. I've seen him more often since he completed the rap/comedy duet tour at the end of December. After this I went to get two photo albums at Walmart, as I needed it for some of the postcards I had ordered on E-bay. Also since there are plenty of photos still in envelopes from Walgreen.

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